California startup aims to be the Android/iOS of the IoT

March 03, 2016 //
By Graham Prophet

Wubby is a device-level software platform for everyday objects; the startup’s contention is that creating and connecting an everyday object should not have to be complicated or time consuming and has configured a standalone “all in the box” solution that enables developers to do all their work in-house.

The platform simplifies the development of IoT and Smart Home devices and systems by providing a programming environment that supports Python code execution directly in the microcontroller of the device. This allows a broader developer audience to create new everyday objects because of the popularity of Python. Wubby (pronounced Wha-bee) claims to be the first platform that truly separates hardware from software, abstracting the hardware and allowing the developers to contribute by writing simple Python scripts, rather having to deploy the whole device image.

At the core of Wubby platform is the Wubby VM (virtual machine), embedded in an everyday object’s microcontroller. It provides a hardware-agnostic environment for the creation of interoperable applications inside each everyday object. Wubby VM is accompanied by the following components - Wubby IDE is a platform-agnostic development environment for configuration, debugging and simulation of everyday objects; Wubby Cloud is a collection of protocols and web services for application deployment and backend device management; Wubby Client is the main tool for user interaction with everyday objects including managing them and installing/updating new apps.

“With years of successful experience developing products for the IoT market, we believe we have solved many of the problems that limit the IoT vision from being fully realised,” says Dimitris Leonardos, CEO of Wubby. “Wubby lets everyday objects quickly connect to each other by infusing them with intelligence, while making the whole process easy. Conventional ways seem to not work - this is why we invented Wubby.”

Wubby was created in 2015 as a spin-off of Econais. Econais has existed since 2010 and has developed a number of Wi-Fi modules claiming size, power consumption, and complete software advantages (the WiSmart lines).